THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: NCP leader A.K. Saseendran will be sworn in as minister on Thursday evening. Sources said Chief Minister’s office has sought time from Governor P. Sathasivam for the swearing in ceremony. The LDF state leadership had entrusted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to take appropriate decision on NCP’s formal request to induct Saseendran into LDF ministry.
The NCP national executive on Monday had taken a decision on granting Cabinet berth to Saseendran. The CJM court on Saturday had acquitted Saseendran in the phone sleaze talk case and scrapping the case, setting the stage for his return to LDF Cabinet after a gap of 10 months. The chief judicial magistrate court on Saturday scrapped the phone sleaze talk case against former minister and NCP leader A.K. Saseendran.
The petition filed by an ex-channel reporter stating that she had no complaint against the former minister was accepted by the court while scrapping the case. The lady had submitted a petition before the court recently stating that she could not recollect whether the person who had sleaze talk with her was actually the former transport minister.
The former reporter had also pointed out that she could not remember if Saseendran misbehaved with her at his official residence. It was pointed out before the court that the matter had been sorted between them and she was not interested in taking the case any further. It may be recalled that Saseendran had resigned on March 27, 2017 after an audio clip of a sexually explicit conversation, allegedly between him and a woman was aired by a local TV channel.
The case had taken a new turn recently when a Thycaud resident filed a petition before CJM court seeking its intervention to prevent a compromise between the former minister and the complainant. However, investigations later proved that the current address given by the petitioner was wrong though she had resided there till 2015. At the moment the person staying there is an office bearer of resident’s welfare association. The petitioner had alleged that the former channel reporter had changed her statement under fear and coercion.
